


A Bat Family Holiday

by Wiccy



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Don’t copy to another site, Found Family, Gen, Holiday Fic Exchange, Holidays, Ugly Holiday Sweaters, holiday fluff, seasonal pranks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 13:39:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16996035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wiccy/pseuds/Wiccy
Summary: The annual Bat Family Holiday Party is upon us and the "Ugly Sweater" theme leaves a lot to be desire as far as Damian is concerned, but Dick knows just what to do to convince him he wants to participate.Set during their time together as Batman and Robin.





	A Bat Family Holiday

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FleetSparrow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleetSparrow/gifts).



> This is my first time writing these characters for a fic and I'd like to thank my Beta Snowshus for helping me to make sure they stayed more or less in character. I really hope this is close to fluff you were hoping for and that you enjoy it!

Damian found him in the servant's kitchen – though Grayson always told him to stop calling it that, it was an eat-in kitchen he'd say – where he insisted on having all of his meals excepting the ones they had on weeknights before patrol that he called 'family dinners', those took place in the dining room and were to include casual banter and clearing your own plates. Honestly, what was the point of employing Alfred at all if they were expected to do their own dishes? Bah, that was an issue for another time. He had more important matters to address at this moment. He barreled through the open doorway, locking eyes on his target and smacked his open palm down on the surface of the table he was seated at. 

"Explain yourself Grayson." 

Dick looked up from his breakfast, one eyebrow raised as Damian entered the room full of drama and demands. He glanced up at the clock on the wall, yep, it was definitely too early for whatever this was going to be. He took a large gulp of his coffee to steel himself against the coming onslaught then acknowledged his adversary.

"Good morning to you too Damian." The first thing that Dick noticed were the squinted eyes and down turned mouth on the boy's face that he'd come to learn meant that Damian was 'decidedly displeased' about something. The second thing he noticed was the red and green of the slightly rumpled item clutched in his hand. Lips twitching, Dick stifled a grin. "What did you need me to explain?"

"This," Damian held the offending object out before him. It dangled there, hanging from the tips of his thumb and forefinger as if it were a used tissue that had been soiled by someone other than himself. "What is the meaning of THIS monstrosity?"

"Oh, that," Dick offered, grin still struggling for rule of his lips, "it's for tonight."

"What, exactly, am I meant to do with it?"

"It's clothing Damian," he plucked at his own tee shirt as if to demonstrate the concept, "you wear it."

"I am NOT putting that on my person," Damian's eyes widened with indignation, "and certainly not out in public."

"I have one," Dick shrugged "so do Steph and Jason... and everybody else."

"Yes, well, that's fine for you. Some of us," and his tone made it clear that he meant himself, "have dignity, Grayson." 

"Well, you and your dignity can think of it as a uniform,” Dick suggested helpfully, “because you can't come tonight without wearing it."

Dick spooned the last of his Kryp-Os into his mouth and dropped the spoon back into the bowl, standing and moving to the sink. The green and red mass now clutched in his fist once more, Damian crossed his arms over his chest, stance as defiant as his smirk.

"As I wasn't keen on attending in the first place, I fail to see how that's suppose to be an enticement." 

"I got one for Tim too," with his back turned to the youngster as he rinsed his bowl and deposited it on the rack near the sink, the the grin finally won it's war and quickly turned into a full blown smile, "and it's worse that yours. If you want to experience that, you'll have to come and..."

"And if I want to come, I'll have to defile my body with," he looked down at the garment in question with disgust, "this."

"Got it in one. Those famous Wayne detective skills must be genetic." Dick turned around again, allowing the boy to see his smile transform into a smirk. 

"Don't push Grayson." Damian let his arms drop to his sides as he began to contemplate 'Doofy Drake' all decked out in a folly of his own and made quick work of weighing the pros and cons of the situation. 

“Fine. I acquiesce to your absurd demands. I will wear the sweater.” His free hand rose to point a finger toward Dick, “but I won't like it.”

Declaration made Damian turned and headed back through the kitchen doorway. Dick shook his head with a chuckle as he watched him go. That kid was so much more like Bruce than anyone, particularly either of the Waynes in question, would have cared to admit. Unlike his dad, however, Dick wasn't going to let Damian skulk around in the shadowy corners of the annual 'Bat family Holiday Party” glaring at everyone and wishing he were out punching muggers and super villains in the face. Damian wasn't a 'normal' kid and he never would be. Honestly, Dick wouldn't want to make him one even if he could. Sometimes, however, he was way too intense. His upbringing had stunted aspects of his personality that were important to being a stable and well rounded human being and it was vital he learn how to let that go and how to make meaningful connections with other people. If Christmas time wasn't the perfect excuse to introduce some of that into his life, he didn't know what was. So, Dick had determined that Damian was going to participate tonight and that he was going to experience and enjoy being something resembling a regular kid for once. 

Happiness, enjoyment and sharing connection with people you care about were what the holidays were for after all, and more importantly, he was sure it's what Bruce would have wanted. There were a lot of areas where Dick could never hope to fill Bruce's cowl, but this? This he could do, and probably better than Bruce himself could have. He ran his fingers through his hair, pushed away from the counter and followed the same path the newest Boy Wonder had a few moments ago. 

Many hours later Dick, in his own ugly sweater; blue and adorned with large abstract snowflakes at the shoulders, hemline and sleeve cuffs and the figure of Santa Claus riding a jingle-bell wearing T-rex among a snowfield in the middle, stood at the bottom of the stairs, fingers drumming impatiently on the top of the railing. Alfred, all decked out in an ugly Christmas suit with glittery snowflakes and carrot nosed snowmen floating against a winter sky blue background fabric, stood near the front door with their coats, gloves and hats at the ready.

“Get a move on Damian, we're going to be late.” he called loudly for the boy for about the fifth time.

“Yes, yes, I'm coming. I can't believe I allowed you to talk me into this nonsense,” The boy tugged at the hem of the sweater as he made his way down the stairs. “I feel like an complete twit.”

Dick had to bite his lips together to keep from laughing as Damian came into view. The overall design of the sweater, all done in green, red and black was a pattern of cat figures, cat heads, paw prints and zig-zag lines. Emblazoned right in the middle and taking up a large portion of the front was a patch-like embroidered picture of a very grumpy hairless cat dressed up as an elf, complete with a couple of little jingle-bells on it's little kitty shirt.

“I think you look adorable.” Dick told him, ruffling his hair as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

Damian batted his hand away roughly, “I was raised by assassins and I know where you sleep.”

“Whatever tough guy, let's go.”

The ride to the party consisted of Dick attempting to get Damian to enjoy the lights and decorations that could be seen as they made their way through the streets of Gotham while Damian sat looking very much like the cat gracing his sweater and rolling his eyes. So far, operation “Get Damian to Have a Fairly Normal Childhood Experience for Once” wasn't fairing so well. Undaunted, Dick assured himself that it would all change once they got to the party.

Nearly everyone was already there by the time the three of them arrived, all chatting, laughing, sharing snacks and generally having a good time. Damian assessed the gathered crowd with a slight sneer of appalled confusion. He couldn't decide who looked more ridiculous; Cassandra is her red, green and white “Christmas Camouflage”, Stephanie with her sweater depicting a beach bod Santa punching a shark, Kate in a yellow, blue and red Hanukkah cardigan decorated with stars of David, menorah and dreidels, or Barbra in a sweater with red and white diagonal stripes and a wreath made of green garland and pom-poms plastered across the front. Jason looked like he hadn't even tried. His wasn't even a sweater, it was just a black sweatshirt that he'd poorly hand painted little snowflake and tree shapes as a boarder around the words 'I'm on the Naughty List and I Regret Nothing' on. In fact, only Dinah seemed to have any taste at all in her black sweater with an all over snowy mountain motif. Though, if somehow forced to tell the truth, he would have to admit that Helena's 'Birthday Boy Jesus' sweater did make me chuckle.

The one thing he didn't see, was the one thing he'd been promised, the one thing that had made him agree to these shenanigans in the first place. That thing being Tim Drake looking utter foolish in a ludicrously ugly sweater on his very own. He raised a questioning eyebrow up at Dick.

“Where's Drake?”

“He'll be here, don't worry. Why don't you go grab some cookies and say hello to everybody?”

“I'm not worried,” he informed, “because Batman never breaks his promises.”

He wandered off toward the food table, leaving Dick with all the implications of that statement. 

About an hour later, Dick was starting to contemplate calling Tim on the comms to find out where in the world he was, when the ex-side kick walked through the door. Damian had seen him enter as well and detached from the shadows to slide in at Dick's side.

Tim's sweater was black with red and white candy cane striped sleeves. On the black background of the front was a fuzzy green Christmas tree decorated with tinsel, lights and miniature bobbles. At the top of the tree was the shape of an angel's body, the head cut off at the neck of the sweater so that Tim's head appeared to be the head of the angel. Underneath the tree were a number of little gifts, all wrapped and awaiting Christmas morning. The entire scene was three dimensional. 

Damian looked up at Dick, the slight smile gracing his features quickly fading.

“You disappoint me, Grayson. It's worse than mine, certainly, but not by enough.”

Dick just smirked, not even looking down at the boy and pulled a small remote control from the pocket of his jeans. He held the little black rectangle out in Damian's direction. It only had one, glowing red, button on it. Damian looked back up to Dick with a questioning look, but his eyes were still trained on Tim who was now in the middle of the room, making his way toward Steph and Cass.

“Push it,” he urged quietly.

Damian's eyes narrowed slightly for a moment before he shrugged and did as he was bid.

“Merry Christmas Damian.”

It took about a second for the signal from the remote to reach it's target. About a second after that Damian's eyes lit up like the Christmas tree adorning Tim's chest. The child-like Christmas wonder that Dick had been hoping for all night twinkling in them like firelight. A few more moments past and the music started, a bold, boisterous rendition of O' Christmas Tree began emitting from somewhere around Tim's waist, probably speakers hidden in some of those gifts, and then the lights began to flicker and dance in time to the music. Somewhere near the middle of the song the rest of the gifts popped open and small figures; a gingerbread man, a doll, a snowman and a nutcracker, sprung out and bounced along to the music too. Tim's eyes widened, frantically searched the room and landed on Dick. They locked eyes and Dick waved at him with the hand still holding the remote and mouthed the words 'gotcha' as Damian lost himself to laughter. 

Acknowledging that he had, in fact, been gotten, Tim gave a nod and shrug and them began to sign along loudly with his sweater. After a minute or so the song came to an end, everyone clapped and Tim took a bow. Shaking his head and chuckling more than a little himself he finally made his way over to the girls.

“I take it all back. That was masterful.” Damian said, wiping moisture from the corners of his eyes.

The rest of the night proceeded without a hitch. Everyone, including Damian, who willing and without coercion or complaint participated in most of the activities and party chatter, had a wonderful time. Gotham's criminal element had even cooperated, leaving their nefarious schemes for the Bats to spoil another night.

“Drake and I will have a competition next year to see who can create the most wonderfully abhorrent sweater for the party.” Damian informed Dick as the car once again moved down the streets of Gotham, heading back to the manor, at the end of the night. He turned his face to the window, chin resting on his forearm as he watched, smile on his face, as the city's holiday decorations whizzed past. “The poor fool doesn't even know that he's already been defeated.” 

'He's going to be just fine Bruce, I've got him,' Dick sent the thought into the ether.

Sitting a bit further back into the leather of the seat Dick smiled and turned to watch out of his own window. It wasn't warm and fuzzy like whiskers on kittens or freely offered hugs, but Dick would take the small victory and he would build on it. After all, enjoyment of a harmless Christmas prank and engagement in a frivolous party was certainly a damn good start to turning Damian Wayne into a 'real boy' and as far as Christmas Miracles went he'd take it.


End file.
